Rotary samplers

ABSTRACT

A sample disc assembly is divided into a number of equal sectors separated by vertical radial walls. This assembly is rotated around a vertical center axis in a stream of falling material, such as ore. In one embodiment, one of the sectors has no floor but has a peripheral vertical wall, so that the material falling on this sector falls through and constitutes the sample. All of the other sectors have floors and have no peripheral walls, so that material falling into them is thrown by centrifugal force into an annular space surrounding the disc assembly, where the material is collected as the reject material. In a second embodiment the functions of the two kinds of sectors are reversed. The sample compartment has a floor but has no peripheral wall, so that the sample is centrifuged out and is caught by the sample output chute, while the rejected material falls through the other, floorless compartments.

United States Patent Olson I v [54] ROTARY SAMPLERS [72] Inventor: JamesF. Olson, 7310 East Montecito Dr., Tucson, Ariz. 85710 [22] Filed: Sept.16, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 73,045

[52] US. Cl. ..73/424 [51] Int. Cl. ..G01n l/20 [58] Field of Search..73/424, 423, 422 R [56] References Cited 9 UNITED STATES PATENTS888,471 5/1908 Constant ..73/424 433,714 8/ 1890 Bridyman ..73/424655,478 8/1900 Damm ..73/424 3 ,045 ,493 7/1962 Seabome ..73/424 FOREIGNPATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 767,096 1/ 1957 Great Britain ..73/424 PrimaryExaminer-Louis R. Prince Sept. 12, 1972 Assistant Examiner--Daniel M.Yasich AttorneyJames A. Eyster [5 7] ABSTRACT A sample disc assembly isdivided into a number of equal sectors separated by vertical radialwalls. This assembly is rotated around a vertical center axis in astream of falling material, such as ore. In one embodiment, one of thesectors has no floor but has a peripheral vertical wall, so that thematerial falling on this sector falls through and constitutes thesample. All of the other sectors have floors and have no peripheralwalls, so that material falling into them is thrown by centrifugal forceinto an annular space surrounding the disc assembly, where the materialis collected as the reject material.

In a second embodiment the functions of the two kinds of sectors arereversed. The sample compartment has a floor but has no peripheral wall,so that the sample is centrifuged out and is caught by the sample outputchute, while the rejected material falls through the other, floorlesscompartments.

18 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PKTENTEUSEP 1 2 I972 SHEEI 1 OF 3 FIG.

JAMES F: GA. 5 ON INVENTOR.

BY W dc PATENTEUsmz m2 3.690.179

sum 2 or 3 JA ME 5 F. OLSON INVEN'TOR.

1 ROTARY SAMPLERS I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relatesto samplers used in industry, and particularly to rotary secondarysamplers as used in the mining and milling industry to take samples ofwet or dry materials for analysis.

Mining companies depend on sampling of their ores,

in dry-or slurry form, followed by chemical analysis of siderable efforthas been expended by the industry in developing accurate primary andsecondary samplers.

One sampler in common use comprises a horizontal trough or slot, termeda sample cutter, which is moved through and across a falling stream ofore. The trough catches a fraction of the ore and directs thisfractional sample into a pipe leading to a sample bin. I

When a sampler is applied to a stream of ore constituting the entireprocess stream the device is termed a'primary sampler. In such a casethe ore stream may attain a rate as high as 1,000 tons per hour, so thateven a small sample fraction would be too large to be practical forassay. The sample is therefore further reduced in quantity by asecondary sampler.

One secondary sampler in common use, the Vezin sampler, comprises ahorizontal trough or sample or may rotate once at predeterminedintervals controlled by a timer. The rate of rotation during samplingis, typically, one revolution in 6 seconds. The percentage ofsample'taken per revolution is directly proportional to the anglesubtended by the cutter blades and, therefore, the accuracy is dependentupon the accuracy of that angle, and upon the maintenance of this anglethroughout the life of the cutter.

Trough sample cutters are generally considered to sample accurately, butactually they do not do so because the main stream and the sample streamare treated differently at the point of separation. The main stream,freely falling past the sampler'to constitute the rejected material,meets no obstacle in its fall. The sample stream, on the other hand, onentering the sample cutter trough no longer falls freely, but isconstrained to enter the sampler through a small cutter opening, afterwhich the sample follows a passage to the sample bin.

Moreover, as the sample cutter has a horizontal velocity in its passagethrough the falling stream of ore, larger pieces of ore tend to beknocked aside, so that the sample taken is not completely representativeof the proportions of large and small chunks and of dust in the ore. Asthere is likely to be a greater proportion of worthless rock in thelarger chunks than in the small pieces and the dust, the assay of metalsand other materials in the sample is not precisely representative of theproportions of components in the plant product.

Furthermore the edges, or blades, of the Vezin cutter wear, under normaloperation, changing their shapes and thus changing the important troughangular opening size and hence the accuracy of sample secured.

The combination of primary and secondary samplers in the typical oreplant requires a crusher to reduce the primary sample, followed by a binand feeder. When two secondary samplers are employed, with gravity feed,a sampling tower 35 feet or more in height is required. In manyinstallations this requirement is difficult, for this much headroom maynot be available.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a rotary samplerwhich may be used as a secondary sampler on ores, slurry, liquids, grainand any other solid or liquid material which can be applied to thesampler in the form of a vertical stream of material. This sampler canalso be used as a primary sampler.

The sampler overcomes objections to present samplers because it receivesthe material in such a way that both sample and reject are treatedimpartially and in exactly the same manner. The shape of the entranceports is relatively unimportant, except that they diverge from thecenter, and wear of the blades separating these ports, although it maychange the entrance port shape, will not affect the sample accuracysince all blades will wear identically. As a result, the sample.

analysis will accurately reflect the constitution of the body ofmaterial applied to the sampler, and will continue to do so throughoutthe life of the sampler.

Furthermore, the use of the sampler eliminates the need for a feeder toeven out the spurts or slugs of material coming from the primarysampler, since our sampler will takea representative sample fromintermittent or pulsating streams. Therefore headroom required for thesampling tower is reduced. Moreover, this sampler, when used as asecondary sampler, largely eliminates the necessity of crushing theprimary sample before feeding it to the secondary sampler, furtherreducing the required headroom.

The sampler of the present invention comprises a circular sampling discmounted to rotate about its center in a substantially horizontal plane.The floor of the disc is divided by vertical radial partitions into aplurality of pie-shaped compartments or sectors subtending equal angles.The material fed to the sampler, for example ore, is fed in the form ofa falling stream which is of cross sectional area having a majordimension the same as or smaller than the diameter of the active portionof the sampling disc.

In one embodiment, one of the compartments has no floor but has aperipheral wall, and the falling ore passes through into a verticaloutlet pipe to constitute the sample ore stream. The other compartmentsall have floors but have no peripheral walls, and therefore do notpermit the ore to dropthrough. Instead, the ore is thrown out sidewaysby centrifugal force, due to rotation of the disc at a suitable speed,into an annular space leading into a reject output pipe. The floors ofthese compartments may slope outward and downward so that gravity willsupplement the centrifugal force. The sample will be a selected fractionof the quantity of ore fed to the sampler, the fraction being determinedby the number of compartments, and the analysis of the sample will beprecisely representative of the constitution of the ore applied becauseall parts of the ore stream falling into the continuously-rotatingsampler are received in precisely the same manner by all of theidentically-dimensioned compartments.

The operation of sampling occurs as the ore falls into the compartments,or strikes a radial partition and then falls into a compartment. Thetop, radial edges of the partitions are termed blades, or wear blades,and may be replaceable, as they will wear rapidly. It is at these bladesor, more specifically, in the plane of the top edges of these blades,normal to the sampling assembly axis of rotation, that the samplingoperation occurs.

In another embodiment the several compartments all are open bottomedexcept one, which has a floor. In this embodiment the sample ore isthrown out by centrifugal force from the floored compartment, and passesinto a sample output pipe, while the reject ore passes through and downinto a reject output pipe. Also, in this embodiment the center shaftbearings are eliminated and the weight of the sample disc is borne by aperipheral ring bearing. This keeps the bearing out of the ore stream.

One object of this invention is to provide a sampler which takes anaccurately representative sample of material.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sampler whicheliminates the need for a feeder and reduces headroom.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sampler which, in itsoperation as a sampler, also operates as a declassifier.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sampler which can beused as a distributor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING A further understanding of theinvention may be secured from the descriptions of the preferredembodiments, together with the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectioned elevation of one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross section of FIG. 1 on the line 2-2.

FIG. 3 is an elevation, partly sectioned, of another embodiment of theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2,an external, circular casing 11, also serving as a supporting frame,ends below in a vertical chute 12 of somewhat reduced diameter servingas the reject output chute. A center supporting hub 13 is secured by aplurality of radial support arms, such as arms 14 and 16, to the casing11. The hub 13 supports a shaft 17 which carries two antifrictionbearings 18 and 19. These bearings support a sampling disc assembly orsampling assembly which comprises a cylindrical hub 20, a floor 21, aperipheral wall 22, and eight radial partitions 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29,31 and 32. The peripheral wall 22 is provided, in seven of the eightsectorial spaces or compartments set off by the partitions, with anopening or port as indicated at 33. In the eighth sector, defined bypartitions 28 and 29, the peripheral wall 22 is solid and extends to thelevel of the disc floor 21, at the plane of the lower edges of thepartitions, and the floor is open or contains an aperture or port, 30.

A cap 34, which is as small as structure will permit, closes the top ofthe cylindrical hub 20. Eight wear blades, such as blades 36 and 37, arescrewed to the top edges of the eight partitions and are clamped, attheir inner ends, by the cap 34.

An input pipe 38, which is shown centered but need not be, having adiameter less than the outer diameter of the sampling disc assembly issuspended over the latter by braces, such as braces 39 and 41, removablysecured to the external casing 11, to provide for replacement. Thisinput pipe 38, or downwardly pro-- aperture 30 in the sampling discfloor 21. The small end,

of the funnel 42 is terminated in a chute 43 passing outside of thereject output chute 12 and constituting the sample output chute.

A labyrinth 44 protects the upper edge of funnel 42 to insure that onlythe sample and all of the sample enters the funnel. Where dusting is aproblem, a rubber or fabric seal may be used in conjunction with orinstead of a labyrinth.

A gear motor 46 is secured to the external casing 11 and is connected bybelts 47 to the peripheral cylindrical surface of the wall 22 of thesample disc assembly. This motor should rotate the sample disc assemblyat a speed suitable to generate adequate centrifugal force on the rejectore and to provide proper distribution of material across the plane atthe top of the blades. For example, in some cases the speed could ber/min.

In the operation of this embodiment as a rotary secondary sampler, thesample material from the primary sampler is dumped into the input pipe38, and falls onto the rotating sample disc assembly. When the primarysample thus falls onto the sample disc assembly it is met by andimpinges upon the blades, the upper edges of which tend to mix thematerial and pass it randomly. The material is thus scattered over theentire plane of the rotating blades while the material is beingaccelerated to an angular velocity by the blades. The material thenpasses down beyond the plane of the upper edges of the rotating blades,constituting also the plane of the entrance ports, to the sectorialcompartments. That part of the material which falls onto the sectortermed the sampling compartment, defined by radial partitions 28 and 29and peripheral wall 22, because this sector has no floor, falls throughport 30 into funnel 42 and out the sample output chute. The remainder ofthe ore, in this case exactly seven-eighths of the total input, fallsinto the other seven sectors and is propelled by centrifugal force intothe external cas ing 11 and out the reject chute 12. Because all eightsectors are exactly alike in reception of the ore, the sample sectorwill receive exactly the same proportion of fines, medium pieces andlarge chunks as will the other seven sectors, so that analysis of thesample will truly reflect the constitution of the applied ore.

The wear blades will wear, perhaps rapidly, but they will all wearevenly, so that wear at this point cannot affect sampling accuracy.

The wear blades may be made of rubber, or their upper edges may be madeof rubber, when soft material such as grain is to be sampled.

This sampler can have two functions in addition to the sampling functiondescribed. It can declassify the ore for, if the descending ore streamapplied to the device tends to have more fines in one part of the streamthan in the remainder, the device moving rapidlythrough the entirestream correctly mixes the fines, thus producing a declassified sample.

The device can also have the function of a distributor, for it can bearranged'to split an input into two equal parts,'or into two unequalparts having a ratio depending on the number of sectors and on how manyhave open bottoms.

in a second embodiment the main body or reject falls through while thesample is centrifuged to the annular space. To accomplish this, seven ofthe eight sectors have no floor and have peripheral walls, while theeighth or sample sector hasa floor and no peripheral wall.

Referring to FIG. 3, an external wall 48 defining an annular space 49surrounds the sample disc assembly comprising a floor 51, peripheralwalls 52 and a central hub 53. A plurality of partitions orvanesindicated by 54 and 56 divide the space of the disc assembly into aplurality of equal sectorial spaces. The number of spaces maybe asdesired, from two to any reasonable larger quantity. Each vane is toppedby a replaceable wear blade as indicated by blades 57 and 58. Theseblades are screwed to the vanes and clamped at their inner ends by thecap 34.

The external cylindrical wall 48 has a sloping bottom 59 which funnelsor directs material into a converging rectangular sample-collectingchute 61. A concentric funnel 62 is secured beneath the sample discassembly and is terminated below in a reject output pipe 63. These twofunnels or compartments and two output chutes are mechanicallyinterconnected for mechanical .support while permitting no openingswhich would intermix the sample and reject outputs.

The upper end of the concentric funnel 62 supports a ring bearing 64, onwhich the sample disc floor 51 at its outer edge rests and can rotate.

A gear motor 46 is positioned-to rotate the sample disc assembly bybelts 47 at a suitable speed, as in the first embodiment. An intake pipe38 is supported above the disc assembly. An inverted-vee deflector 66prevents pile-up of material at the point where the reject output pipe63 passes through the eccentric compartment or funnel 59. A flexibleseal 67 prevents dust from getting out of the annular space.

In the operation of this embodiment, the incoming material is dumpedonto the sample disc assembly. It is there met by and impinges upon therotating blades, at their upper edges tending to mix and distribute thematerial randomly. The material then passes into the several sectorialcompartments. A portion of the material falls on the floor of the samplesector of the disc assembly, is centrifuged into the annular space 49and goes out the sample chute 61. The remainder of the ore drops throughthe disc assembly and out the reject chute 63. Support of the sampledisc assembly on the large ring bearing 64 eliminates the centerbearings and eliminates the use of shaft supports 14/16, FIG. 1. This ispreferable when central chuting of reject material is desired or whenthe handled material is very abrasive, and is necessary when largeamounts of material are handled, when wear of the central hub supportsbecomes a problem.

What is claimed is;

l. rotary sampler for solid broken material, including ore, comprising:

a circular sampling assembly rotatable around a substantially verticalaxis;

a plurality of pie-shaped or sectorial compartments in said assemblyarranged in a circle around said axis and completely occupying thecircle, said compartments being of two kinds, sampling and reject, therebeing one sampling compartment and all others being reject compartments;

a. floor normal to said assembly axis, said floor being the floor of atleast one of said compartments and at least one of said compartmentshaving no floor;

a plurality of identical flat partitions separating each saidcompartments and forming the radial walls thereof, each said partitionlying in a plane comprehending said axis and radial thereto, all of thetop edges of said partitions lying in a plane normal to said axis,whereby said plane of the top edgesof the partitions constitutesexclusively the sampling region of the sampler, and the area in the saidplane of the top edges, at each compartment, constitutes the entranceport of that compartment;

a peripheral wall having the general form of a surface of revolutionwith axis coincident with said assembly axis and generally defining theouter portions of said compartments, at least one of said compartmentshaving an aperture in said peripheral wall;

means for rotating said sampling assembly about its axis;

an external stationary casing surrounding said sampling assembly andspaced therefrom, the form and position of said casing being that of aright circular cylinder having its axis coincident with that of saidcircular assembly axis, and having no floor, whereby solid brokenmaterial centrifugally thrown from any compartment having an aperture inthe peripheral wall thereof strikes said casing and falls;

means for applying the solid broken material to said sampling assembly;

means for catching the solid broken material after it has struck saidcasing and fallen therefrom; and

means for catching the solid broken material falling from a floorlesscompartment and separating it from material falling in said casing.

2. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means forrotating turns said sampling assembly at such speed as to producecentrifugal force sufficient to discharge material from any saidcompartment having a floor.

3. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means forapplying the solid broken material to the sampler comprises a downwardprojecting in take chute having a discharge area covering substantiallyall of the area of said sampling assembly, whereby material falling andprojected from said intake chute enters substantially the entire saidsampling assembly area.

4. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means forcatching the solid broken material falling from a floorless compartmentcomprises:

a conical funnel suspended under said circular sampling assembly; and

an output chute terminating the bottom of said conical funnel.

5. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means forcatching the solid broken material after it has struck said casing andfallen therefrom comprises: v

a cone-shaped funnel suspended under said casing;

and

an output chute terminating the bottom of said coneshaped funnel.

6. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which the upper edgeof each said partition constitutes a replaceable wear blade.

7. A rotary sampler for solid broken material, including ore,comprising:

a circular sampling assembly rotatable around a substantially verticalaxis;

a plurality of pie-shaped or sectorial compartments in said assemblyarranged in a circle around said axis and completely occupying saidcircle, said compartments being of two kinds, sampling and reject, therebeing one sampling compartment and all others being reject compartments;

a floor normal to said assembly axis, said floor generally forming thefloors of said compartments, said floor being absent from said samplingcompartment, said floor being present in all of said rejectcompartments;

a plurality of identical flat partitions separating said compartmentsand forming the radial walls thereof, each said partition lying in aplane comprehending said axis and radial thereto, all of the top edgesof said partitions lying in a plane normal to said axis, whereby saidplane of the top edges of the partitions constitutes exclusively thesampling region of the sampler, and the area in the said plane of thetop edges, at each said compartment, constitutes the entrance port ofthat compartment;

a peripheral wall enclosing the outer portion of said compartments andconnected to two said flat partitions to form said sampling compartment,said reject compartments each having an aperture in said peripheral walladjacent to said floor;

means for rotating said sampling assembly about its axis;

an external stationary casing surrounding said sampling assembly andspaced therefrom, the form and position of said casing being that of aright circular cylinder having its axis coincident with that of saidcircular sampling assembly axis and having no floor, whereby solidbroken material centrifugally thrown from said reject compartmentsstrikes said casing and falls;

means for applying the solid broken material to said sampling assembly;

means for catching the sampled solid broken material falling from saidfloorless sampling compartment; and

means for catching the rejected solid broken material after it hasstruck said casing and fallen therefrom.

8. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which said means forrotating turns said sampling assembly at such speed as to producecentrifugal force sufficient to discharge material from any saidcompartment having a floor.

9. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which said means forapplying the solid broken material to the sampler comprises a downwardprojecting intake chute having a discharge area covering substantiallyall of the area of said sampling assembly, whereby material falling andprojected from said intake chute enters substantially the entire saidsampling area simultaneously.

10. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which said means forcatching the sampled solid broken material falling from a floorlesscompartment comprises:

a conical funnel suspended under said circular sampling assembly; and

an output sample chute terminating the bottom of said conical funnel.

11. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which said means forcatching the rejected solid broken material after it has struck saidcasing and fallen therefrom comprises:

a cone-shaped funnel suspended under said casing;

and

an output chute terminating the bottom of said coneshaped funnel.

12. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which the upper edgeof each said partition constitutes a replaceable wear blade.

13. A rotary sampler for solid broken material, including ore,comprising:

a circular sampling assembly rotatable around a substantially verticalaxis;

a plurality of pie-shaped or sectorial compartments in said assemblyarranged in a circle around said axis and completely occupying saidcircle, said compartments being of two kinds, sampling and reject, therebeing one sampling compartment and all others being reject compartments;

a floor normal to said assembly axis, said floor generally forming thefloors of said compartments, said floor being present in said samplingcompartment and absent from said reject compartments;

a plurality of identical and flat partitions separating saidcompartments and forming the radial walls thereof, each said partitionlying in a plane comprehending said axis and radial thereto, all of thetop edges of said partitions lying in a plane normal to said axis,whereby said plane of the top edges of the partitions constitutesexclusively the sampling region of the sampler, and the area in the saidplane of the top edges, at each said compartment, constitutes theentrance port of that compartment;

a peripheral wall having the general form of a right circular cylinderwith axis coincident with said assembly axis, connected to the outerportions of said partitions to form said compartments, said samplingcompartment having an opening in the portion of the peripheral walladjacent to said floor;

means for rotating said sampling assembly about its axis;

an external stationary casing surrounding said sampling assembly andspaced therefrom, the form and position of said casing being that of aright circular cylinder having its axis coincident with that of saidcircular sampling assembly axis and having no floor, whereby solidbroken material centrifugally thrown from said sampling compartment,which has no peripheral wall, strikes said casing and falls;

means for applying the solid broken material to said sampling assembly;means for catching the rejected solid broken material falling from saidfloorless compartments; and

means for catching the sampled solid broken material after it has strucksaid casing and fallen therefrom.

14. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which said means forrotating turns said sampling assembly at such speed as to producecentrifugal force sufficient to discharge material from any saidcompartment having a floor.

15. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which said means forapplying the solid broken material to the sampler comprises a downwardprojecting intake chute having a discharge area covering substantiallyall of the area of the sampling assembly, whereby material falling andprojected from said intake chute enters substantially the entire saidsampling area simultaneously.

16. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which said means forcatching the rejected solid broken material comprises:

a conical funnel suspended under said circular sampling assembly; and

an output rejection chute terminating the bottom of said funnel.

17. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which said means forcatching the sampled solid broken material after it has struck saidcasing and fallen therefrom comprises:

a cone-shaped funnel suspended under said casing;

and

an output chute terminating the bottom of said coneshaped funnel.

18. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which the upper edgeof each said partition constitutes a replaceable wear blade.

1. A rotary sampler for solid broken material, including ore,comprising: a circular sampling assembly rotatable around asubstantially vertical axis; a plurality of pie-shaped or sectorialcompartments in said assembly arranged in a circle around said axis andcompletely occupying the circle, said compartments being of two kinds,sampling and reject, there being one sampling compartment and all othersbeing reject compartments; a floor normal to said assembly axis, saidfloor being the floor of at least one of said compartments and at leastone of said compartments having no floor; a plurality of identical flatpartitions separating each said compartments and forming the radialwalls thereof, each said partition lying in a plane comprehending saidaxis and radial thereto, all of the top edges of said partitions lyingin a plane normal to said axis, whereby said plane of the top edges ofthe partitions constitutes exclusively the sampling region of thesampler, and the area in the said plane of the top edges, at eachcompartment, constitutes the entrance port of that compartment; aperipheral wall having the general form of a surface of revolution withaxis coincident with said assembly axis and generally defining the outerportions of said compartments, at least one of said compartments havingan aperture in said peripheral wall; means for rotating said samplingassembly about its axis; an external stationary casing surrounding saidsampling assembly and spaced therefrom, the form and position of saidcasing being that of a right circular cylinder having its axiscoincident with that of said circular assembly axis, and having nofloor, whereby solid broken material centrifugally thrown from anycompartment having an aperture in the peripheral wall thereof strikessaid casing and falls; means for applying the solid broken material tosaid sampling assEmbly; means for catching the solid broken materialafter it has struck said casing and fallen therefrom; and means forcatching the solid broken material falling from a floorless compartmentand separating it from material falling in said casing.
 2. A rotarysampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means for rotatingturns said sampling assembly at such speed as to produce centrifugalforce sufficient to discharge material from any said compartment havinga floor.
 3. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which saidmeans for applying the solid broken material to the sampler comprises adownward projecting intake chute having a discharge area coveringsubstantially all of the area of said sampling assembly, wherebymaterial falling and projected from said intake chute enterssubstantially the entire said sampling assembly area.
 4. A rotarysampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means for catching thesolid broken material falling from a floorless compartment comprises: aconical funnel suspended under said circular sampling assembly; and anoutput chute terminating the bottom of said conical funnel.
 5. A rotarysampler in accordance with claim 1 in which said means for catching thesolid broken material after it has struck said casing and fallentherefrom comprises: a cone-shaped funnel suspended under said casing;and an output chute terminating the bottom of said cone-shaped funnel.6. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 1 in which the upper edgeof each said partition constitutes a replaceable wear blade.
 7. A rotarysampler for solid broken material, including ore, comprising: a circularsampling assembly rotatable around a substantially vertical axis; aplurality of pie-shaped or sectorial compartments in said assemblyarranged in a circle around said axis and completely occupying saidcircle, said compartments being of two kinds, sampling and reject, therebeing one sampling compartment and all others being reject compartments;a floor normal to said assembly axis, said floor generally forming thefloors of said compartments, said floor being absent from said samplingcompartment, said floor being present in all of said rejectcompartments; a plurality of identical flat partitions separating saidcompartments and forming the radial walls thereof, each said partitionlying in a plane comprehending said axis and radial thereto, all of thetop edges of said partitions lying in a plane normal to said axis,whereby said plane of the top edges of the partitions constitutesexclusively the sampling region of the sampler, and the area in the saidplane of the top edges, at each said compartment, constitutes theentrance port of that compartment; a peripheral wall enclosing the outerportion of said compartments and connected to two said flat partitionsto form said sampling compartment, said reject compartments each havingan aperture in said peripheral wall adjacent to said floor; means forrotating said sampling assembly about its axis; an external stationarycasing surrounding said sampling assembly and spaced therefrom, the formand position of said casing being that of a right circular cylinderhaving its axis coincident with that of said circular sampling assemblyaxis and having no floor, whereby solid broken material centrifugallythrown from said reject compartments strikes said casing and falls;means for applying the solid broken material to said sampling assembly;means for catching the sampled solid broken material falling from saidfloorless sampling compartment; and means for catching the rejectedsolid broken material after it has struck said casing and fallentherefrom.
 8. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in which saidmeans for rotating turns said sampling assembly at such speed as toproduce centrifugal force sufficient to discharge material from any saidcompartment having a floor.
 9. A rotary sampler in accordaNce with claim7 in which said means for applying the solid broken material to thesampler comprises a downward projecting intake chute having a dischargearea covering substantially all of the area of said sampling assembly,whereby material falling and projected from said intake chute enterssubstantially the entire said sampling area simultaneously.
 10. A rotarysampler in accordance with claim 7 in which said means for catching thesampled solid broken material falling from a floorless compartmentcomprises: a conical funnel suspended under said circular samplingassembly; and an output sample chute terminating the bottom of saidconical funnel.
 11. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 7 in whichsaid means for catching the rejected solid broken material after it hasstruck said casing and fallen therefrom comprises: a cone-shaped funnelsuspended under said casing; and an output chute terminating the bottomof said cone-shaped funnel.
 12. A rotary sampler in accordance withclaim 7 in which the upper edge of each said partition constitutes areplaceable wear blade.
 13. A rotary sampler for solid broken material,including ore, comprising: a circular sampling assembly rotatable arounda substantially vertical axis; a plurality of pie-shaped or sectorialcompartments in said assembly arranged in a circle around said axis andcompletely occupying said circle, said compartments being of two kinds,sampling and reject, there being one sampling compartment and all othersbeing reject compartments; a floor normal to said assembly axis, saidfloor generally forming the floors of said compartments, said floorbeing present in said sampling compartment and absent from said rejectcompartments; a plurality of identical and flat partitions separatingsaid compartments and forming the radial walls thereof, each saidpartition lying in a plane comprehending said axis and radial thereto,all of the top edges of said partitions lying in a plane normal to saidaxis, whereby said plane of the top edges of the partitions constitutesexclusively the sampling region of the sampler, and the area in the saidplane of the top edges, at each said compartment, constitutes theentrance port of that compartment; a peripheral wall having the generalform of a right circular cylinder with axis coincident with saidassembly axis, connected to the outer portions of said partitions toform said compartments, said sampling compartment having an opening inthe portion of the peripheral wall adjacent to said floor; means forrotating said sampling assembly about its axis; an external stationarycasing surrounding said sampling assembly and spaced therefrom, the formand position of said casing being that of a right circular cylinderhaving its axis coincident with that of said circular sampling assemblyaxis and having no floor, whereby solid broken material centrifugallythrown from said sampling compartment, which has no peripheral wall,strikes said casing and falls; means for applying the solid brokenmaterial to said sampling assembly; means for catching the rejectedsolid broken material falling from said floorless compartments; andmeans for catching the sampled solid broken material after it has strucksaid casing and fallen therefrom.
 14. A rotary sampler in accordancewith claim 13 in which said means for rotating turns said samplingassembly at such speed as to produce centrifugal force sufficient todischarge material from any said compartment having a floor.
 15. Arotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 in which said means forapplying the solid broken material to the sampler comprises a downwardprojecting intake chute having a discharge area covering substantiallyall of the area of the sampling assembly, whereby material falling andprojected from said intake chute enters substantially the entire saidsampling area simultaneously.
 16. A rotary sampler in accordance withclaim 13 in which said means For catching the rejected solid brokenmaterial comprises: a conical funnel suspended under said circularsampling assembly; and an output rejection chute terminating the bottomof said funnel.
 17. A rotary sampler in accordance with claim 13 inwhich said means for catching the sampled solid broken material after ithas struck said casing and fallen therefrom comprises: a cone-shapedfunnel suspended under said casing; and an output chute terminating thebottom of said cone-shaped funnel.
 18. A rotary sampler in accordancewith claim 13 in which the upper edge of each said partition constitutesa replaceable wear blade.